Qi Jiu's movements paused, and immediately stopped opening the cabinet door, and instead bent down to pick up the photo, and when he saw the content on the photo, his expression changed slightly.

In the photo, two teenagers of the same height are standing side by side, and the teenagers are wearing tailor-made costumes, and the two are almost identical in terms of body shape and photo posture.

But what is creepy is that in the photo, the face of the young man standing on the left side is repeatedly smeared with the tip of a pen, the brushstrokes are wildly scribbled, and the thick red ink completely covers his face.

The boy on the right looks even more weird, his face has been cut off, and a black-and-white photo has been reattached to the photo, covering the hole in the boy's severed head on the right.

The repasted black-and-white photograph gives an indescribable sense of weirdness, with stiff expressions, dull pupils, and facial features distorted at a discordant angle.

If I have to describe it, it's like a cameraman pressing the shutter on a corpse lying in a coffin.

The black-and-white photo is the face of a dead man, the last "last photo" of the deceased left in the world.

Chapter 217: Year (36)

Qi Yan turned the photo over, and the traces of the cropped portrait were even more obvious from the back.

Who would do such a perverted thing? Tear off the face from the photo and replace it with a posthumous photo of the corpse.

There is also a line on the back of the photo -

"Xu Zhiwen and Xu Zhiwei, taken in the spring of 19xx"

Qi Zhen remembered the name Xu Zhiwen, the author of the "Nian" picture book in Duoxi Duole's room was Xu Zhiwen, and Mrs. Xu also mentioned that Xu Zhiwen was the uncle of Duoxi.

Judging from the information on the group photo, Mrs. Xu has a son in addition to Xu Minxin and Xu Zhiwen, that is, another teenager in the photo: Xu Zhiwei.

And judging from the height and posture of the two teenagers in the photo, Xu Zhiwen and Xu Zhiwei seem to be close in age, and Qi Yan even suspects that the two are twin brothers.

After all, the dungeons in the "Rules Book" like to use the twin setting, and the bond between the twins can be used as a good entry point and reversal point for the plot, providing richer drama to the plot.

Judging from the background setting of the dungeon, in this apartment, all the aborigines except Mrs. Xu have passed away.

Xu Zhiwen and Xu Zhiwei in this group photo are also no longer alive, but the "death" of the two seems to be different, lipstick and posthumous portraits appear on the same photo at the same time, and both are distinct in color and imagery.

What are the metaphors of "lipstick" and "posthumous image"? While the strong contrast brings a sense of separation, Qi Yan also finds it interesting.

It seems that there is a new side plot that needs to be unlocked, and Qi Yan is very interested in this room full of mirrors, after all, he can only get the corresponding family identity card by opening the branch line of room 501 and complete the "check-in invitation" of the guy in 079.

Qi Yan put away this weird group photo, and then opened the cabinet door, and the moment the wardrobe opened, the sudden strong color made Qi Yan's eyes shake.

The red, dark blue, dark purple, and bright yellow costumes are stacked layer by layer, and the satin panjin show is elegant, the patterns are cumbersome and detailed, and the stitches are long and looping, giving people a sense of bright color and dazzling impact.

Considering that the two teenagers in the photo are wearing the costumes of Danjiao, and the ghost drama at this time, Qi Zhen is almost certain that the story of 501 is related to singing.

Qi Yan turned on the flash point of his mobile phone and took a commemorative photo of the layers of costumes in the cabinet.

Qi Jiu, who got the weird group photo, suddenly had an experimental idea in his mind, he passed through the door connecting the circulation room as fast as he could, and came to another replicated room 501, the cabinet door that should have been tightly closed was open at the moment, and there was no trace of this photo in the cabinet.

Qi Zhen tried to put the photo back in the cabinet, and when he came to another copy room again, the photo appeared at the coordinate point he had just placed.

Qi Yan quickly concluded that although he was in an infinite loop of rooms, the changes in these rooms were synchronized.

In other words, "copying" is not only the environment itself, but also the actions of the guests there.

This experiment also confirmed Qi Zheng's previous suspicion: there was only one room from beginning to end, but the alienation gave the guests in it an illusion.

Qi also found a suspicious point: if the brothers in the photo are the owners of room 501, then where is the bed? Are they crammed into one bed? Or did one of them die early, so there was only one bed left in the room later?

[The predictable kitten reminds you again: the alienation of the room is intensifying, and you must leave the room within two minutes, otherwise it will cause irreversible serious damage!] 】

Two minutes, if only Qin Rang was present, with the blessing of his European Emperor's physique, they could always find key clues in the shortest possible time.

Without the blessing of good luck, Qi Ji must make up for it with his brain.

In such a copy with the character's storyline as the background, the emotions and experiences of the NPC characters are the most important information points, and these key information are often hidden in the places and objects that hold the characters' emotions.

Qi Ji looked around, and the objects with the strongest presence and the most discord in the room were nothing more than mirrors, ghost fire candles, and a gramophone playing ghost plays.

There are too many candles and mirrors, and Qi Zhen can't explore them thoroughly in just two minutes, so he can only start with this gramophone.

Qi Zhen tried to carefully move the position of the gramophone without affecting the playback, revealing a yellowed piece of paper under the black fuselage.

His expression was slightly condensed, and he immediately took the paper out of the bottom of the gramophone, and found that it was an old newspaper that had been edited, and a news item was published in the newspaper—

"A serious fire broke out at the Great World Theatre last night, when a well-known theatre company was performing, and the fire accident caused the unfortunate death of one troupe member and the other troupe member was also seriously injured and could not perform on stage again. After a preliminary investigation, the two members of the troupe were only 14 years old and were students of the highly respected Professor Ye Honglan.

According to the report provided by the fire department, the fire broke out at about 8 o'clock last night, and when the firefighters arrived at the scene, the fire was extremely fierce, and the firefighters took a huge risk to enter the theater for search and rescue.

Rescuers found two troupe members at the scene of the accident. One person died in the fire, and the other was taken to a nearby hospital for first aid, but due to severe burns, doctors said he might not be able to perform on stage again in the future.

At present, the police and fire departments are fully investigating the specific cause of the fire, and the directors of the theater and theater company also expressed their deep condolences to the victims, and said that they will help the victims' families through the difficulties in the future."

The edges of the old newspaper had been worn out and some of the handwriting had become illegible because it had been viewed countless times by the owner of the room.

It is impossible to hide irrelevant information under the gramophone, and the two members of the troupe who suffered misfortune mentioned in the news are most likely the two teenagers in the photo: Xu Zhiwen and Xu Zhiwei.

Qi Zheng reasonably speculated that the teenager in the group photo with the posthumous photo of the corpse was a member of the 14-year-old troupe who was unfortunately killed in the news report, and the ages of the two teenagers in the photo also coincided with the report.

Posthumous photos and accidental deaths can be matched, but what about lipstick? What is the special meaning of a face smeared with lipstick?

At this time, there was still a minute left before the room was completely alienated, and seeing that it was too late to take any more action, Qi Yan had to terminate the plan to search the room and start preparing to escape the room within a minute.

He walked into the bathroom again, almost without any hesitation, and immediately removed the plastic pipe connected to the washing machine and the sewer pipe with his hands and feet, the plastic material of the pipe was somewhat aged, but it did not affect the use, Qi Ji confirmed, the washing machine could enter the water normally before.

Qi Yan carried the water pipe removed from the interface of the washing machine, and then quickly opened the sluice valve, and the powerful water column immediately sprayed out of the plastic pipe in his hand, Qi Yan aimed the water column at the corridor and the four walls of the room, and sprayed the water column at the room full of candles with a clear goal.

Columns of water poured directly over the burning candles, and the ubiquitous ghost fire was quickly extinguished with the sound of the flames.

Qi Yan had previously concluded that it was precisely because the countless mirrors in Room 501 reflected each other that the originally ordinary room formed a sense of labyrinth.

The reproduction cycle of the room itself seems to have a similar effect to the reflection between mirrors.

Both are essentially replication, extending the "one" to the "innumerable" through reproduction.

Therefore, the countless reflections of the mirror are the "pollution source" that leads to the alienation of the room.

Only by destroying the mirror can the alienation disappear completely. But destroying mirrors isn't as simple as smashing them all, and brutally breaking them will only create more mirror fragments, which will increase the number of reflections, which is very tricky for the situation of trapped visitors at the moment.

The most efficient way to get paid is to cut off the light source.

Once the light source is gone, the reflection will cease to exist, a similar method used by Qi Zhen in the magician's tent in the circus.

After all, the existence of shadows depends on the light source, and the same is true for mirrors.

As the candles were extinguished in pieces, the longing room 501 was once again plunged into darkness where the fingers could not be reached.

But the ghost play that had a distorted melody gradually became smoother, and Qi Yan felt that the scratching sensation of his arms and ankles had also disappeared, and the sound of "bang-la-la" water was amplified several times in the darkness.

Not long after the candle went out, the pale blue morning light leaked through the crack in the door and into the house, followed by the early morning chirping of birds and insects.

As the light grew brighter, the morning light replaced the ghostfire candlelight, everything fell silent, and in the growing light, the alienated room 501 returned to normal.

After all, after cutting off the ghost fire light source, the mirror can no longer reflect, and the room itself cannot replicate itself.

Qi Yan didn't forget to close the sluice before leaving room 501, he remembered that the downstairs of 501 was the 401 where Mrs. Xu lived, and he didn't want Mrs. Xu's bedroom to be flooded, after all, it was too rude for the Chinese New Year.

[Congratulations to the player for finding the relevant clue fragments and triggering the side story "The Secret of the 501 Homeowner"]

[Current progress of "501 Homeowner's Secrets": 30%]

Sure enough, the bigger the crisis, the greater the benefits, and his search against time under the limit triggered the side plot.

Qi Ji had the illusion that he had been in room 501 for a long time, but he looked at the time again to confirm and found that less than ten minutes had actually passed.

The alienation of the room paralyzes people's perception of time, and in it, all cognition is affected and even alienated.

Qi Zhen re-equipped the "Many Joy ID Cards" and tried not to make any noise and walked towards the stairwell.

This trip to the "501" apartment has gained a lot, not only completely through the "Paper Man Who Shouldn't Go Home" side quest, obtained He Xiang's identity card, but also opened the "501 Homeowner's Secret" side line, and got weird group photos and clues related to the theater fire house accident.

Of course, the most important thing is that he figured out what 079 really meant by "moving to the room next door to me".

The moment Qi Yan pushed open the door of room 203, Qi Xiaonian, who had been waiting for his news, immediately looked in the direction of the door, and when he saw Qi Yan's embarrassed appearance at the moment, his eyes widened in disbelief: "Brother, what's wrong with you..."

After the violent operation of dismantling the water pipe to extinguish the ghost fire just now, at this moment, Qi Jiu's body was "let's click" and couldn't stop dripping water, he twisted the water on his clothes, and smiled casually: "It's nothing, it's just cleaning the room for the residents on the fifth floor." ”

Chapter 218: Year (37)

Qi Xiaonian choked: "... It seems that this cleaning is quite intense, hard work. ”

Who's going to get themselves wet like this if they're cleaning properly?

Qi Yan pursed his lips and smiled: "It's not hard, it's just a bit water-intensive, Mrs. Xu's water bill is not cheap, but unfortunately I can't let that guy reimburse me." ”

Qi Xiaonian quickly captured the key information: "That guy...?" ”

Emotionally keen, he quickly realized something, and the guy in his brother's mouth was by no means an ordinary existence, at least for his brother.

After all, he had never seen his brother mention another person in such a tone and demeanor.

The elder brother seems to enjoy the moment when the other party is mentioned, although the elder brother can hide his emotions at will, but some things will seep out invisibly, and they can't hide it.

"I also hope that the sewer system of this old apartment can be better, otherwise Mrs. Xu will suffer......" Qi Zhen suddenly thought of something, and pushed the frame thoughtfully.

Mrs. Xu lives in 401, which happens to be downstairs from the room that he has been deeply "cleaned".

As soon as Qi Ji went to the bathroom to change his soaked clothes, he heard Mrs. Xu come and knock on the door with his back foot: "Are you awake?" Hungry or not? I can't have breakfast until later this morning, I don't know if it's because the water pipes in this building are aging or what, the ceiling of my room suddenly keeps seeping water, I have to deal with it..."

Qi Yan scribbled out after changing his clothes, Qi Xiaonian looked at him with a look of "I know what you must have done again", Qi Yan smiled apologetically, and said to Mrs. Xu through the door: "Huh? Is the roof leaking? ”

It seems that this apartment is indeed too badly aged, even if he thoughtfully closed the sluice before leaving, but unfortunately, Mrs. Xu's room still did not escape the catastrophe.

But just now, Qi Ji thought that this might not be a bad thing for him.

Mrs. Xu: "Yes, it's the New Year, how nerve-wracking this is, I don't know if the water pipe is cracked, and now I guess I can't contact the repair master, but what should I do..."

"It's an old building, but it's been a long time since there was a water pipe leak, and I don't know what's going on..."

As if he didn't know anything, Qi Yan proposed to Mrs. Xu with concern: "Grandma, I remember that there are a lot of picture books left by your uncle in your house, and you can't ask for them after the books are soaked in water, it's a pity, I'll help you move the books out first, right?" ”

The last time I went to room 401 to call the program team, because Mrs. Xu was staring at him, Qi Yan was not easy to look around, and now he happened to take the opportunity to move books to go in again.

Therefore, it is not a bad thing to say that Mrs. Xu's room is leaking, although it is too immoral for the Chinese New Year, but it has finally given Qi Yan a reason to enter 401 for in-depth exploration.

Mrs. Xu remembered something at this time, and clapped her hands busily: "I'm old, I almost forgot if you didn't mention it, books are most afraid of water, this is the thought left to us by your uncle, we can't soak the book badly..."

When Qi Yan heard Xu Zhiwen's name, he was stunned, and followed Mrs. Xu's words and asked, "Grandma, when will the uncles come home?" ”